CR2
“Without practice, there is no knowledge (Horton & Freire, 98)”
This phrase immediately caught my attention and it already gave me some clues about the relationship between practice, theory, and knowledge. It is difficult to know something without practice. Horton and Freire define practice as the act of practicing your knowledge. But practice also creates knowledge. It is good to have that particular thought in mind when teaching in a school. Children need practice to gain knowledge. But at the same time, they say that we also require theoretical knowledge as can be seen in the following quote “We have to have a certain theoretical kind of practice to know also (Horton & Freire, 98)”. To solve a problem, we use the principals of a theory. Horton & Freire claim that we can obtain theories by reading or by conversation “Information can be got through a book, and it can be got through conversation. (99)” They also distinguish knowledge and theory, when they talk about practice “It creates knowledge, but it’s not its own theory (98)”.
As can be seen in Horton’s saying “There is no such a thing as neutrality (102)” the authors do not believe in neutrality. Freire even says “Is it possible to discuss, to study the phenomenon of life without discussing exploitation, domination, freedom, democracy, and so on. I think that’s impossible, but I am also sure that if I am a teacher of biology, I must teach biology (104)”. In my opinion, this sentence fits for every subject in school and university. I honestly think that students should be made aware of the fact that there are power imbalances and injustices. However, I do not think it is good to force them to have the same opinion as you. This could also be found in the text “It’s not a question for the biology teacher to impose on the students his or her political ideas (Horton & Freire, 104) “. Students should be able to think critically, built their own opinion and share their opinion.
For me, practice is the most important thing in school. It is essential to keep in mind that there are different ways of learning. Some students prefer tactile, auditive or visual. Therefore, I think that teachers should provide the students with opportunities to practice in several different ways. Through practice, kids learn easier as the theory is often boring, but the theory is also necessary to have a solid background, as can be seen in the sentence “ At least, I have to understand better theoretically what is happening in the people’s practice (Horton & Freire, 98)”.
The quote “separate the [disciplinary] content as a scientific object from its historical and social context (Horton & Freire, 108)” shows me that theory should never be without practice but rather as a theory embedded in its practice. It is necessary to remember that theory always depends on the social and historical context. In my opinion, we all are influenced by our social and historical context and so are the theories. One passage that I liked was “Knowledge is changed to the extent that reality also moves and changes. Then theory also does the same. It’s not something stabilized, immobilized (Horton & Freire, 101)”
When I draw connections with cultural humility the most important point for me is that they both deal with recognizing and changing power imbalances. Horton and Freire state that we should put everything in context and see the historical and social background. I consider this as crucial for every situation in life.
The specific event that prompted the founders of cultural humility to create and implement the principals of cultural humility was the beatings of Mr. King in April 1994. Another aspect that influenced them was that a lot of people felt like there was injustice in the health system. The “The circumstances where families felt as if they were not taken care of (Chavez, 8:35)”. They needed to identify and address unjust power structures. As a nurse she was aware of cultural differences and about the fact that families came to the hospitals and though they are not being heard “They felt humiliated (Chavez, 5:38)”.
When we relate this historical event and the principles of cultural humility to Verghese’s realizations about his job as a human being, not just a clinician, the first quote that comes to my mind is “The willingness to be wounded may be all we have to offer (Verghese)”. There you can see his empathy and his passion for his job. This relates to the principle of self-reflection. He knows what he is doing and learns from his experiences. He also recognizes power imbalances and wants to change it, which is an important principle of cultural humility. This can be seen in the following quote “And I felt the same helplessness, knowing that the illness here was inextricably linked to the bigger problem of homelessness, disenfranchisement, and despair (Verghese)”.
When I connect Freire and Horton’s dialogue about education and neutrality with points and principles in the Cultural Humility video, I can see several connections. In the video they talk about lifelong learning, Freire and Horton also talk about always gaining new knowledge “process of producing the new knowledge (97) “. In my opinion, everything we practice helps us gain new knowledge and to reflect critically on ourselves. Also, the cultural humility principle “recognizing and changing power imbalances” can be connected to Horton and Freier. As can be seen in the following statement “you have the responsibility to put whatever you’re teaching in a social context, relating it to society not just acting as if it had nothing to do worth people, with humanity, because it does (Horton & Freire, 104–105)” Another important point is that the third principle of cultural humility “Developing institutional accountability” can also be connected. Horton and Freire think that you have to give something to your community which can be seen in the following statement “That doesn’t mean I have to impose my ideas on people, but it means I have a responsibility to provide whatever light I can on the subject and share my ideas with people (105)”.
The first step I can take to practice cultural humility in my community partner experience is that I simply show up and to care. This was also addressed in the video “It’s really important to show up (Chavez, 17:01)”. I also have to be careful about the language barriers as my first language is German. “My definition of definition of cultural humility is to be open to learning all the time (Chavez, 22:25)” this passage shows that I want to be open to learning and cultures. But I have to keep in mind that there are going to be a view difficulty for me that I have to face at my work at laurel Del. However, these difficulties offer a chance of learning to me as can be seen in the following passage “From every challenge I am going to learn from (Chavez, 27:39)”.
When I relate one of the methods of ethics from the margins to the key principles of Cultural Humility, I have to think of that one quote “A fish does not see water (Chavez, 14:25)” It is difficult for us to see the social ideology that we live in. Therefore, reflecting critically on everything we think to know and even ourselves is crucial. Also, when I teach in schools one day, I want to put everything I teach in context and show the historical and social background. I want to make my students aware of the fact that all of us live in certain ideologies and that imbalances and injustices must be identified to be changed.
